UKM - Graduate School of Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia.
Global Entrepreneurship Research and Innovation Centre, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Kota Bharu, Malaysia.
Front Public Health. 2022 Sep 9;10:958021. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.958021. eCollection 2022.
The persistent rise of pandemics across the globe in recent times has led to the prescription of several collaborative preventive strategies to reduce the effect that the pandemic has on public health. Consistent monitoring and surveillance appear to be the only available approach to detecting and classifying the issues of public health threats. Global pandemic threats demand public co-operation to take preventive actions at a personal level so that the risk of infectious diseases can be contained. Said that, this study explored the influence of awareness of precaution measures (APM), concerns about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (CAC), knowledge of COVID-19 (KOC), and perceived risk (PRK) on preventive behavior (PRB), as well as the effect of age and gender on the relationships among the studied variables. Quantitative data were collected from 551 university students across Malaysia and Vietnam through field survey and online survey, respectively. The data collection was performed from 13 March to 23 March 2020. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed for data analysis. The multiple group analysis (MGA) technique was applied to compare the data retrieved from the respondents based on age and gender. The results revealed that APM, CAC, KOC, and PRK on PRB significantly influenced PRB toward COVID-19. In light of the two personal factors, age and gender, significant variances were noted for age and KOC, while PRK on PRB on the PRB toward COVID-19. Based on the study outcomes, APM emerged as the most significant predictor of PRB, followed by PRK on PRB, and CAC. Since a large fraction of the world reside in rural areas and have high-level interaction with animals, the provision of education at all level can harness the attitude to adopt PRB toward COVID-19. As such, policymakers need to work with the young generation so that the latter may serve as change agents to spread the message of taking precautions and adopting effective PRB toward COVID-19.
近年来，全球大流行病持续上升，促使人们制定了几种协作性预防策略，以减少大流行病对公共卫生的影响。持续监测和监视似乎是发现和分类公共卫生威胁问题的唯一可用方法。全球大流行病威胁需要公众合作，在个人层面采取预防措施，以遏制传染病的风险。即便如此，本研究仍探讨了预防措施意识 (APM)、对 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 的关注 (CAC)、对 COVID-19 的了解 (KOC) 和感知风险 (PRK) 对预防行为 (PRB) 的影响，以及年龄和性别对研究变量之间关系的影响。通过实地调查和在线调查，分别从马来西亚和越南的 551 名大学生那里收集了定量数据。数据收集于 2020 年 3 月 13 日至 23 日进行。采用偏最小二乘结构方程建模 (PLS-SEM) 进行数据分析。应用多组分析 (MGA) 技术比较了基于年龄和性别的受访者的数据。结果表明，APM、CAC、KOC 和 PRK 对 PRB 对 COVID-19 的影响显著。鉴于两个个人因素，年龄和性别，年龄和 KOC 存在显著差异，而 PRK 对 PRB 对 COVID-19 的 PRB 存在显著差异。根据研究结果，APM 是 PRB 的最主要预测因子，其次是 PRK 对 PRB 和 CAC。由于世界上很大一部分人居住在农村地区，与动物有很高的互动，因此可以在各个层面提供教育，以利用这种态度来采取针对 COVID-19 的 PRB。因此，政策制定者需要与年轻一代合作，以便后者可以作为变革的推动者，传播采取预防措施和采取针对 COVID-19 的有效 PRB 的信息。
